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Jewison was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Dorothy Irene (née Weaver) and Percy Joseph Jewison, who managed a convenience store and post office.[3] He attended Kew Beach School and Malvern Collegiate Institute, and while growing up in the 1930s displayed an aptitude for performing and theatre. Jewison is often mistaken for a Jew because of his surname, but he and his family are in fact Protestant.[4] He served in the Royal Canadian Navy (1944–1945) during World War II, and after being discharged traveled in the American South, where he encountered segregation, an experience that would influence his later work.[5]

Jewison attended Victoria College in the University of Toronto, graduating with a B.A. in 1949. As a student he was involved in writing, directing, and acting in various theatrical productions, including the All-Varsity Revue in 1949. Following graduation, he moved to London, where he worked sporadically as a script writer for a children's show and bit part actor for the BBC, while supporting himself with odd jobs. Out of work in Britain in late 1951, he returned to Canada to become a production trainee at CBLT in Toronto, which was preparing for the launch of CBC Television.[6]

When CBC Television went on the air in the fall of 1952, Jewison was an assistant director.[6] During the next seven years he wrote, directed, and produced a wide variety of musicals, comedy-variety shows, dramas, and specials, including the The Big Revue, Showtime and The Barris Beat. In 1953 he married Margaret Ann "Dixie" Dixon, a former model. They would have three children – Michael, Kevin, and Jennifer – who would all pursue careers in the entertainment world.[7]

In 1958 Jewison was recruited to work for CBS in New York, where his first assignment was Your Hit Parade, followed by The Andy Williams Show. The success of these shows led to directing specials featuring performers such as Harry Belafonte, Jackie Gleason, and Danny Kaye. The television production that proved pivotal to Jewison's career was the Judy Garland "comeback" special that aired in 1961, which included Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, and led to a weekly show that Jewison was later called in to direct. Visiting the studio during rehearsal for the special, actor Tony Curtis suggested to Jewison that he should direct a feature film.[5] It was not until the early 1990s that he would branch back into television, starting with producing the TNT biographical film Geronimo (1993).[8]

Continuing the string of successes was one of the films that has become closely identified with its director, In the Heat of the Night (1967), a crime drama set in a racially divided Southern town and starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, while Jewison was nominated for Best Director.

As a follow-up he directed and produced another film with McQueen, using innovative multiple screen images in the crime caper The Thomas Crown Affair (1968). From that point Jewison produced all feature films he directed, often with associate Patrick Palmer, and he also acted as producer for films directed by others, beginning with his former film editor Hal Ashby's directoral debut The Landlord (1970).[10] After the completion of the period comedy Gaily, Gaily (1969), Jewison, having become disenchanted with the political climate in the United States, moved his family to England.

At Pinewood Studios northwest of London, and on location in Yugoslavia, he worked on what would become one of the top-grossing films of all time, the musical Fiddler on the Roof (1971, re-issued 1979), which won three Oscars and was nominated for five others, including Best Picture and Director. During the filming of Fiddler, Jewison was also the subject of the 1971 National Film Board of Canada documentary, Norman Jewison, Filmmaker directed by Douglas Jackson.[11]

Jewison in 2011

Jewison's next project was the musical Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), based on the Broadway musical written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. It was filmed in Israel, where Jewison also produced the western Billy Two Hats (1974), starring Gregory Peck. Superstar, controversial for its treatment of a sacred subject, was followed by another movie that sparked critical debate, this time over violence, Rollerball (1975), set in the near future when corporations ruled the world and entertainment centered around a deadly game. The next film he directed, the labor union drama F.I.S.T. (1978), loosely based on the life of Jimmy Hoffa, also provided some controversy, this time regarding the screenwriting credit. Screenwriter Joe Eszterhas was unhappy to share the screenwriting credit with the film's star Sylvester Stallone, as he felt that Stallone's input had been minor, while Stallone claimed to have basically rewritten the whole script.[12]

Jewison's next film proved to be one of the most popular romantic films ever made. Moonstruck (1987), starring Cher, was a box office hit that garnered three Academy Awards, including Cher as Best Actress. It also competed for the Oscar for Best Picture, and provided Jewison his third Best Director nomination.

For the next decade Jewison continued to direct feature films released by major studios: In Country (1989), a drama concerned with Vietnam veterans and the daughter of a war casualty; Other People's Money (1991), a social comedy about greed in the 1980s; Only You (1994), a romantic comedy set in Italy; and Bogus (1996), a fantasy about a young boy and his imaginary friend. He also served as producer for the film January Man (1989), executive producer for the Canadian movie Dance Me Outside, and branched back into television both as director and producer, including the series The Rez (1996–1998).

Norman Jewison has continued directing and producing; his latest film to be released was the thriller The Statement (2003), based on a novel by Brian Moore, and starring Michael Caine. That same year his autobiography This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me was published, expressing the enthusiasm, conviction and creative passion that have sustained a rewarding career.[14]

Jewison’s commitment and contribution to film in Canada is evidenced by his creation of the Canadian Centre for Advanced Film Studies in 1986, which opened its doors in 1988 as an advanced film school on Windfields Estate in Toronto, Ontario. Later renamed the Canadian Film Centre (CFC), its mission is to invest in and inspire the next generation of world-class Canadian content creators and entrepreneurs in the screen-based entertainment industry.

Jewison welcoming guests to a CFC event in 2012

The CFC delivers a range of multi-disciplinary programs and initiatives in film, television, music, screen acting, and digital media, which provides industry collaborations, strategic partnerships, and business and marketplace opportunities for talent and participants.[15]

Jewison at a CFC Garden Party in 2012

More than 1700 alumni and 100 alumni companies have come out of CFC’s programs to date,[15] including:

The Thalberg award was one of many honours Jewison has been awarded, including Honorary Degrees from Trent, Western Ontario and the University of Toronto, and he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1992. Also in 1992, Jewison received the Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism in the Performing Arts, a companion award of the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts.[19]

Norman Jewison and Margaret Ann Dixon married on July 11, 1953. She died on November 26, 2004, the day following her 74th birthday in Orangeville, Ontario, from undisclosed causes.[20] They have three children: Kevin, Jennifer and Michael. Jewison has five grandchildren: Ella, Sam, Megan, Henry, and Alexandra.

In November 2010, Jewison was re-married to Lynne St. David.[citation needed]

Also in 2010 Blake Goldring donated $1,000,000 to Victoria University at the University of Toronto to establish a specialized first year liberal arts program in Norman Jewison's name. The program began in September 2011 welcoming less than 30 select students into Norman Jewison Stream for Imagination and the Arts. Goldring is a 1981 graduate of the school. Jewison was the faculty’s 12th chancellor from May 2004 to October 2010.[21]

Jewison has been selected as the recipient of the lifetime achievement award from the Directors Guild of America. Jewison received the honor at the 62nd Annual DGA Awards on January 30, 2010 at the Century Plaza in Los Angeles.[22]